2D-CELL: image processing software for extraction and analysis of 2-dimensional cellular structures

2D-CELL is a software package for the processing and analyzing of photographic images of cellular structures in a largely interactive way. Starting from a binary digitized image, the programs extract the line network (skeleton) of the structure and determine the graph representation that best models it. Provision is made for manually correcting defects such as incorrect node positions or dangling bonds. Then a suitable algorithm retrieves polygonal contours which define individual cells — local boundary curvatures are neglected for simplicity. Using elementary analytical geometry relations, a range of metric and topological parameters describing the population are then computed, organized into statistical distributions and graphically displayed.